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Weekly sermons from the traditional and contemporary worship services at Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, Texas. Rooted in Scripture and the Anglican tradition, these messages explore how the gospel speaks to our faith, our everyday lives and the world around us.
Church, we are living in a world where many of us are running on empty. Not just tired, empty. We're empty from trying to hold families together with strength we don't have, empty from trying to stretch paychecks that refuse to stretch, empty from trying to fix habits that we can't break wounds, we can't heal, and hearts we cannot mend. And the world keeps keeps preaching the same old tired sermon. It's up to you to do it or be patient or have you tried everything and if you just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
Deacon Shawn Torres:But here's the problem. Strength succumbs, patience goes to pieces, resources run bootstraps break. And when they break, we break with them. That's why the colic this morning hits like a thunderclap. It says the church cannot continue in safety without god's help.
Deacon Shawn Torres:Not barely getting by without god's help, not slightly inconvenienced without god's help. No. Cannot continue, cannot survive, cannot stand, cannot make it one more step without his protection. His governing goodness and his covenant mercy and when we turn to the scriptures today, they all sing the same truth with different voices. Isaiah cries it from the marketplace.
Deacon Shawn Torres:David sings it from the sanctuary. Paul groans it from his anguish, and Jesus demonstrates it with a hillside miracle, all attempting to get us to see one kingdom reality. When we bring our empty hands to a sovereign God, his covenant mercy turns our not enough into more than enough. Because long before our strength ran out, long before our patience ran thin, god had already opened the marketplace grace. Now let's step into that marketplace where the god of more than enough calls out to people who have nothing left to give.
Deacon Shawn Torres:Isaiah steps onto the scene like a herald in the street shouting to a starving world. He doesn't begin chapter 55 with a gentle whisper. He begins with a shout. In our English Bible, it reads, ho, kinda like Santa Claus, but this word is actually a transliteration of the Hebrew term, not a translation. Translated, it would read, hey, listen, pay attention, and it carries a note of sorrow or pity.
Deacon Shawn Torres:It's the kind of word that someone uses when someone is ignorantly walking toward danger. It's the cry of a street vendor trying to stop a starving individual from passing by the only table with real food. It is god interrupt going to that. They're do for customers. He They're is the kind of merchant who declares be to the desperate, everyone who thirsts come to the waters, and he who has no money come, buy, and eat.
Deacon Shawn Torres:Church, notice who God is calling, not the wealthy, not the self sufficient, not the people who have figured out how to make life work. God is calling the thirsty, the broke, the empty handed, the spiritually bankrupt. And then god asked the question that exposes every heart in the room, why pay for something that will not nourish you? Why spend your hard earned money on something that will not satisfy you? In other words, why do you keep dragging your souls to wells that leave you thirsty?
Deacon Shawn Torres:Why do you keep investing in what will never feed you? Family, Isaiah is confronting our human condition. That is we are hungry for what only god can give but we keep shopping in the wrong marketplace and into that hunger, god offers the most scandalous invitation in scripture. Come without money, without merit, without resources, without leverage, come with nothing and receive everything. This invitation is the free offer of covenant grace.
Deacon Shawn Torres:God does not require payment because he himself is the payment. He does not demand sufficiency because he supplies sufficiency. He does not ask you to bring enough because he delights in filling not enough with his abundance. God is saying, bring me your emptiness. Bring me your bankruptcy.
Deacon Shawn Torres:Bring me your thirst, your longing. Bring me your not enough, and watch me turn it into more than enough. But church, stepping into that invitation, it is never easy because when you finally admit that you're empty, when you finally quit pretending that you have enough, you discover something unsettling. The path from emptiness to abundance always leads through the unknown. And stepping into the unknown, it is never comfortable.
Deacon Shawn Torres:When you leave what is familiar, you will face obstacles that you did not expect. You will meet resistance that you did not anticipate. You will encounter moments where fear whispers louder than faith. That's why covenant grace doesn't just invite you, it sustains you. So let's move from Isaiah's marketplace where we heard god's invitation to receive covenant grace to David's sanctuary where we witness divine deliverance for the helpless.
Deacon Shawn Torres:In Psalm one forty five, David pulls back the curtain on the character of our king. He tells us in verse eight that the lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and rich in loyal love. And then in verse 14, the lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. God's kingdom is unlike any kingdom on earth. Earthly kings pay attention to the high, the mighty, the influential.
Deacon Shawn Torres:But king Jesus sets his attention on the fallen, the crushed, the bowed down. Verse 15 says, the eyes of all look to him and he gives them their food in due season. He opens his hands and satisfies the desires of every living thing. This is the heart of our king. He opens his hand.
Deacon Shawn Torres:He satisfies the hungry. He lifts the broken. He steadies the collapsing. He raises the bow down. I wonder this morning if anyone in here is bowed down under a weight that keeps pushing you lower.
Deacon Shawn Torres:Is life pressing you so fierce going We're to to upon him in truth. When you reach the limit of your capacity, you have simply reached the starting point of his capability. But I can hear someone asking, how do I know God will treat me with the same covenant loyalty that he showed David? How do I know that his mercy won't run out? How do I know his promises won't collapse under the weight of my failures?
Deacon Shawn Torres:How do I know his covenant is still good for me right now in my mess, in my weakness, in my need? These aren't small questions. These are soul questions. These questions take us straight into Paul's revelation in Romans where we see the unshakable foundation of covenant privileges. When we open Romans nine, we don't find Paul in a calm reflection.
Deacon Shawn Torres:We find Paul in anguish, heartbroken over Israel, grieving over their unbelief, yet clinging to the faithfulness of God. And in that anguish, Paul lists eight covenant privileges that god gave Israel. He gave Israel adoption. He gave them the glory, the law, temple service, promises, patriarchs, and the human ancestry of Messiah himself, Christ, who is god over all forever praised. Why does Paul rehearse this list?
Deacon Shawn Torres:Because he wants the church to understand something essential. God's covenant commitment, it is not a mood. It's not fickle. It's not emotional. It is not seasonal, and it is not dependent upon human performance.
Deacon Shawn Torres:It's an unshakable legal reality established in history, anchored in his character, and secured by his sovereignty. That means even when Israel stumbled, God's promises did not. Even when Israel wavered, God's covenant did not. Even when Israel failed to remain faithful, God's faithfulness remained. God's covenant isn't anchored in human perfection.
Deacon Shawn Torres:Thanks be to god for that. It is anchored in his unchangeable character. I must admit to you that I just happen to love skyscrapers. For some reason, they fascinate me as I look at them throughout the skyline. New York City Steinway Tower, it is super slender and when the winds howl and the storms rages, that building may sway up to three feet do to We're Manhattan schist bedrock.
Deacon Shawn Torres:When Israel have looked at their circumstances, they could feel the building swaying like it's about to collapse. But Paul says, look at the bedrock. The covenant is bedrock. The promises are bedrock. The Messiah is bedrock and bedrock does not collapse.
Deacon Shawn Torres:As Christ Church, our security does not rest on how well we perform this week. It does not rest on our consistency, our discipline, our spiritual record, not even our emotional stability, our security rest on the covenant promises secured by Jesus Christ. Our salvation is grounded in his sovereign grace. Our hope is anchored in his unchanging character. Our future is held by his eternal faith fulness.
Deacon Shawn Torres:So, you can stand secure in any storm whether you cause the storm or the storm came crashing into you. So, if god's covenant grace is free and his character is compassionate and his promises are unshakable, then the question becomes, what happens when we actually bring our it. Way to we're the it. To And And the us. Difference two of runner, John the the Baptist.
Deacon Shawn Torres:We're So, he withdraws to a desolate place but the crowds, they follow him. Thousands of people who are broken, who are hungry, who are desperate, people who have nothing to offer Jesus but their needs. But instead of turning them away, Matthew tells us that Jesus had compassion on them. Not irritation, not frustration, not exhaustion, compassion. Because scarcity, it does not repel Jesus, it attracts him.
Deacon Shawn Torres:And as the day wears on, Jesus' disciples, they panic and say, send them away so that they can go and find food for themselves. But Jesus refuses to send away what he intends to satisfy. Then he says the sentence that exposes every human heart, you give them something to eat. Imagine trusting god to meet the needs of others with your ability. What miracles might we experience if we respond to those in need in faith instead of fear.
Deacon Shawn Torres:Fear says, we don't have what it takes but Jesus says, bring me what you have. Bring me your not enough. Bring me your insufficiency. Bring me your weakness. Bring me those two fish and five barley loaves.
Deacon Shawn Torres:This child's lunch, it is laughable in the face of thousands but church little in our hands becomes an abundance in his. Jesus takes their not enough and blesses it and breaks it and multiplies it until the impossible becomes the inevitable. They all ate. They all were satisfied, and all 12 of the apostles had a basket of bread leftovers as a reminder of god's sufficiency. This miracle is a revelation of how the kingdom of god works.
Deacon Shawn Torres:Human scarcity plus divine sufficiency equals overflowing multiplication. Jesus doesn't ask us to bring what we wish we had. He asked that we bring what we actually have. If you only have a little strength but need more, then bring it to Jesus. If you only have a little courage, a little faith, a little hope, then bring it to Jesus because the miracle does not begin when you have enough.
Deacon Shawn Torres:The miracle begins when you admit you don't. When we place our not enough into the hands of the God of more than enough, he blesses it and breaks it and multiplies it and turns it into overflow. That means our scarcity is not a barrier. It is the stage in which his sufficiency performs. So family, if the invitation is free, if the character god is compassionate, if his covenant is unshakable, and if Jesus meets what we surrender with the abundance, our moment requires, then there's only one question left.
Deacon Shawn Torres:What will you place in his hands today? Will it be your fear, your weakness, your emptiness, your exhaustion, your brokenness, your sin, your scarcity, you're not enough. Church, your emptiness is not a liability in God's kingdom. It is the doorway to his abundance. Your weakness is not a barrier.
Deacon Shawn Torres:It is the place where his strength performs. Your not enough is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of the miracle because when you bring your empty hands to the sovereign god, his covenant mercy turns your not enough into more than enough. And Isaiah tells us, come. David tells us, he will lift us up.
Deacon Shawn Torres:Paul tells us that his covenant, it is bedrock. Jesus tells us, he will multiply whatever we surrender into what we actually need. So family, bring him your not enough. Bring him your empty hands. Bring him your whole self and watch.
Deacon Shawn Torres:Watch with holy only who who one Holy Spirit is